Diets.

I remember once when I was a kid I saw a poster featuring Garfield. I remember it saying something about “Diet is just Die with a T.” There’s diets emphasizing this, that and eliminating everything else. And it’s all promoted as if one thing fit all. Where exactly does evolution fit into all this? Where it is obvious that American culture (super-size me and all) encourages obesity (well, that and that people live in suburbs, drive cars miles and miles to the “corner store” and rarely do any physical exercise), what about us as individuals with tons of evolutionary genetic heritage?

As for me, I know that my family heritage is rural. Craftspeople, tradespeople, farmers and shopkeepers. Also, there’s the poverty and walking up-hill both ways in the snow. A body that burns calories slowly, knows how to store for long times w/o food and has endurance would be helpful in lean, hard-working times. Some of the women at work call my body-type “thick.” And it’s true, I’m not scrawny woman. While I am overweight, I’ve got big bones. I’ve got my mother’s family’s hips, broad and solid. I was well nourished as a kid — perhaps over-nourished compared to my ancestors. Maybe I’m genetically built to be optimized for hard labor and lean times? I find that I’m not as jazzed by proteins, but I ADORE complex and simple carbs, stuff that is cheap and easy to get. Protien actually makes me more hungry, and I tend to eat more when proteins are involved. Funny, huh?

Jon is different, though. He NEEDS protein. A veggie diet leaves him starved. We’ve found a happy medium, for the most part.

Maybe weight loss, health maintenance and optimization for our lifestyles has nothing to do with what our current culture and science is telling us — maybe we need to ask ourselves, how did our parents grow up and eat and work? How did their parents live? Maybe that can serve as a guidance?

Of course — I have no scientific back up, but it’s an interesting thought.